Published 8:03 pm, Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The hearing before the state Public Service Commission is set to begin Wednesday in Charleston.

The distribution line would run 56 miles through Morgan, Jefferson and Berkeley counties.

Charleston-based Mountaineer Gas has said a 27-mile distribution line would run from a Columbia Gas transmission line in Pennsylvania to Berkeley Springs and then onto the north end of Martinsburg. The proposed second phase would run a 29-mile line extension from Martinsburg to Charles Town and Shepherdstown.

The company says the project would facilitate economic development in the Eastern Panhandle.

An environmental group opposes the project.

Mountaineer Gas has about 220,000 customers and nearly 6,000 miles of pipelines.